My interests include:

I have logged almost 2000 dives and almost 1700 underwater hours in 32 countries since
1975 (including about 400 dives at least 90 feet deep, about 100 night dives
and about 100 long dives between 90 and 201 minutes), with most of my dives in Southern California. Each dive is different with so many exciting things to see.

For example, if you would like to see a picture of me with my 400 pound Giant Black Sea Bass buddy taken on July 5, 2001 as well as a photo I took of this beautiful fish,
click here.

If
you would like to see many pictures I took while on the liveaboard boat Mahtab
for 15 days going from Northern Thailand to North Sumatra in March and April
2009, click here. After my diving adventure, I
explored the North Sumatra land.

If
you would like to see pictures of me diving at the California Science Center
(CSC) Live Kelp Tank in Exposition Park, Los Angeles as well as helping collect from
the CSC workboat from 2010 to 2013, click
here.

If you would like to see pictures of me diving in the Aquarium of the Pacific
tanks in Long Beach, California on July 22, 2006, click
here.

If
you would like to see a picture I took while in the water with one of five
different whale sharks near La Paz, Baja, Mexico in November 2007, click
here. This whale shark was about 30 feet long!

I
participated in the
first volunteer Reef Check California Survey on April 30, 2006 at Santa Cruz
Island (west of Ventura). If
you would like more information about Reef Check California, click
here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of my dive buddy behind a giant sponge at Bloody Bay Wall, Little Cayman Island,
click here.

If you would like to see pictures I took near Darwin's Arch in the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador in January 2000 of a pair of hammerhead sharks,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a garibaldi (California State marine fish) at Catalina
Island (southwest of Los Angeles), click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a blenny, framed by coral in the Caribbean,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a trumpetfish in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took of a Christmas tree worm in Belize, click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took in French Polynesia of a gray reef shark seeming to kiss my divemaster's ass goodbye,
click here.

If you would like to see pictures taken in Cenote Chac Mool on November 27, 2001 near Akumal in the Yucatan, Mexico,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me and the 22 pound (32 inch long) sheephead fish I caught on September 24, 1999 at San Miguel Island, California,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me and an octopus taken in October 2005 at Eagle Reef, Catalina Island, California by Chris Grossman,
click here. If you would like to see a picture I took of Joe Kalohi holding an octopus taken in British Columbia,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me "diving" in the hot tub aboard the Peace dive boat,
click here
or here. [This is a picture from the Peace photo album at http://www.peaceboat.com/photos.htm.]

If you would like to see a picture of me on October 2, 2004 which was opening day of lobster season in California,
click here
or here. If you would like to see a
picture of me on November 14, 2006 of me and the group Don, Cathy, Lorraine (Don's Scuba
instructor) and me with more lobsters,click
here.
I caught four lobsters in 15 minutes (a new record for me)! And the visibility was great as I
could see the boat looking up from the bottom 100 feet down. That evening, we had a gourmet
feast! For both trips, I had been diving with the Muellers at Don's secret spots on their
fantastic boat "Bottom Time" off Palos Verdes.

If you would like to see
sample underwater pictures I took in May and June 2010 in Bonaire, please click
here.

I was former President, Vice President and currently Program Chairperson and
Webmaster of
The Sea Diversdive club, and in addition was former President of the Aerospace Corporation Dive Club for 6 years.

I have an 8-inch diameter Celestron telescope and enjoy viewing the stars and planets and giving
astronomy workshops at places such as
Camp de Benneville Pines on the north slope of Mt. San Gorgonio (tallest mountain in Southern California at 11,399 feet) in the San Bernadino National Forest at Angelus Oaks near Big Bear Lake, California.
Click here for more information about this week's
sponsoring group, called Pacific South-West Institute of Religious Liberals. I am a member of the International Astronomical Union and the American Physical Society.

If you would like to see a picture of me on the cover of Sky and Telescope Magazine, posing in front of a cosmic ray house at Cornell University,
click here. I am in the foreground on the right holding the
Fresnel lens. I helped design the house and inside laboratory experiment.

There are many confusing acronyms in aerospace, so I co-authored "The Acronym Book", published by the AIAA (American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics).
If you would like more information about this publication containing more than 50,000 referenced entries,
click
here. [If you purchase this book immediately after clicking on this last link, then Amazon.com will donate 15 percent of The Acronym Book purchase you make (as well as 5% of other purchases) to the non-profit Beach Cities Symphony (see the next section of this web page).]

I also published about 80 papers and patents related to astronomy and
physics; to see them,click
here.

I have been playing violin in the Beach Cities Symphony Orchestra
since 1978. We give four concerts a year at El Camino College in Torrance, California. I am on the Orchestra's Board of Directors, as shown if you
click here. For more information about me in general and my association with the BCSO, click on
Peter's biography.

If you would like to see a picture of me with my violin and my longtime friend Roy
Sonne, click here.
Roy and I played violin together in the same high school orchestra as well as in a string quartet. Roy
played first violin in the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra whereas I aspire to play outside in front of Carnegie Hall. If you would like to see a picture of Roy playing my violin,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me just before the March 2003 Beach Cities Symphony concert,
click here.
If you would like to see a picture of me playing the violin at age 13, click here.

If
you would like to see piano music I composed and published at age 10, click
here. This composition was included on page 27 of the book
"My Hamster Crawls and Other Piano Pieces" byPaul
Ramsier
and published by the
New York
Graphic Society,
Greenwich, CT
in 1963 (Library of Congress #63-19940).

I
became interested in music because of my mother. If you would like
more information about my mom and her music, click
here.

I enjoy seeing the world and taking vacations. I average about one international trip a year. I have spent a total of
more than five years abroad, visiting 105 countries and all 7 continents. I have a world map on the wall in my study, with pins indicating places I've visited, and the map is well covered.
A similar map of places I visited and lived is available if you click
here.

If you would like to see pictures of me exploring North Sumatra, Indonesia in
April 2009 (riding elephants, climbing volcanoes, visiting a large lake,
experiencing a jungle trek and seeing orangutans in the wild, click
here (and view the last several photos).

If you would like to see a picture of me on Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa in October 2002,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture of me on the Great Wall, China in July 2005, click here.

I enjoy land-based as well as underwater photography. I take digital
images, Hi-8 and digital video and 35 mm slides. Underwater photography is especially challenging. I give periodic slide and movie shows to my dive club and other organizations, and this is an excellent way for me to share my adventures.

For a sample picture of a swan I took in Slovenia, click
here. For a sample picture of a bald eagle in Washington State, click
here.

I have 13 California Desert Tortoises, with most of them offspring or
offspring of the offspring of the original adults I was given. The tortoises chase after me in my backyard! I use four-footed lawnmowers. California Desert Tortoises are endangered (although not in my backyard), so I have to license them with the California Department of Fish and Game.
If you would read an article about our yard-raised tortoises which appeared in
the Tortuga Gazette, click
here. These baby tortoises are now adults,
each now weighing more than 8 pounds.

In late June 2000, one of my female tortoises laid 7 eggs, and I incubated these eggs at
about 82 °F in a heated ice chest in one of my bathrooms.
Click here to see a photo when six were out of their shells and the last one was trying hard to be free! A six inch long ruler is shown for comparison.

In the summer of 2007, one of the females laid 14 eggs (two separate batches of
7); they were all incubated but alas none hatched.

I have been a member of the South Bay Unitarian Fellowship (SBUF) for
almost 40 years. Here I experience liberal religion within an extended family setting. We try to make the world a better place. We have weekly Sunday programs and a few other events. I am currently the
Unitarian Universalist Service Committee (UUSC) representative for SBUF. I
am currently Vice President and was formerly President and Treasurer of this organization.

I was part of a UUSC delegation to monitor the November 2003 elections in Guatemala.
I took the only photo previously displayed on the UUSC Homepage and some of my photos appear in the Winter 2004 UUSC Newsletter.

If you would like to see a picture I took which is on all the materials (including the cover photo) sent out by the UUSC as part of their November 2004 Guest At Your Table campaign,
click here.

If you would like to see a picture I took which was used by the UUSC as part of their report on human rights history in Guatemala,
click here.

I was a member of the
Bronx High School of Science West Coast Alumni group for about 15 years (until it became inactive). Here I socialized with others who shared a common educational, cultural and geographical heritage. We met a few times a year in the Los Angeles area to have special events or plan for them. In addition, I
occasionally attend alumni events from Cornell University
(where I went to graduate school).